people want my power
&& they want my station

but they couldn't take it

There had, a long time ago, been a time when Aiden's lack of emotions had not bothered her. There was a time when she had taken a sort of comfort in it. For the empath girl who felt everything, it had been a comfort to be around Aiden's apathy. But now, two years after his perceived death, she found herself despising the weakness to her ability. She wanted to know how he felt about this situation. Had he missed her? Was it as impossibly difficult to maintain his own sanity as it was for Samantha? With anyone else, she would have been able to tell so easily. But with Aiden, she felt blind. Even as she sat at the table, watching him intently as he gathered his coffee.

There was a familiarity there as he chatted with the warlock behind the counter, and for a moment, Samantha found herself jealous of the ease of their conversation. Once, Samantha had spoken to him with that ease. The warlock's emotions could be picked up by the empath easily, and from the Were King? Nothing. Samantha felt almost sad. Nostalgic. A wave of bitterness left from everything that she had lost threatened to consume her. She had spent the last two years mourning Aiden and with that, her love for him had never waivered. She'd expected she would love him forever. The kind of love that was solidified from an intense loss. Aiden, however, had had two years to get over her. The idea of that hurt her far more than she had ever anticipated.

As he approached the table, Samantha forced herself to sit up straight, her soprano voice surprisingly steady as she explained her current living situation. When she had returned to the city, she'd put little thought into if she was welcome in the space again. Though she assumed now it would be better if she at least asked. His shrug of a response nearly infuriated her. How hard was it to show some glimpse of an emotion?! "Okay," Samantha said gently, her eyes cast downward to her own cup of coffee. The whipped cream had melted into the hot liquid. Another disappointment for today. "Just let me know how much you'd like me to pay for rent or... whatever."

The fae's eyes flitted toward him once more as he seemed more content to stare out the window than to be present in the conversation with her. She knew he had never been great at conversation. Once, she had found it easy to fill the empty space with her own words or with silence. It had been comfortable then, and not at all now. But there were things that had to be said, and with that Samantha pressed herself forward. "I felt... I feel guilty. I met Frost. I thought... I trusted him blindly. I didn't consider that he could read my mind and very well make my fears come to life. I let myself believe that these girls were after me again to put me through the worst time of my life again. I should have talked to you about it. I should have just told you what was wrong!" Samantha's voice grew in intensity as she spoke, the sudden realization that her emotions had gotten away with her causing her to stop. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, both at the current situation and one long past. "I went to New York to find those girls. The ones that changed me. They didn't even remember me. They were the visions of my nightmares and I wasn't even a memory for them."

Samantha stopped then, glancing down at her coffee and the mussed latte art. She felt full of emotion, as though she would explode with everything she felt. "And I missed you," Samantha said after several moments of silence. "I left Sacrosanct because I missed you, and it was unbearable. I saw you everywhere." Her voice waivered, and for a moment Samantha had to look anywhere but the man across from her. She stared intently at the wall to her left, blinking rapidly. She would not cry. She. Would. Not. Cry. "I missed you so, so much. I was so in love with you and I watched you die and... and now you're sitting in front of me and I just don't know what to do." Hell, her eyes watered, and with what mustered stubbornness she could manage, she looked up at him. "I ruined everything between us, Aiden."

try to pull my status but they couldn't fake it

Samantha Cassidy